Category Archives: Gloria Swanson

Fine, I lie, strictly I saw it about 100 yards from Sunset Boulevard, but you could see, and hear the traffic on said street, so close enough. Mind, the section of said road featured in the film, is not the section in downtown Hollywood, but who’s counting?

As I’ve joked before, I dont seem to do films in a standard setting any more. A recent one was at Bradford Cathedral, and last night, on the roof of the Montalban Theatre, sat in a deck chair, wearing wireless earphones (classy ones too), with my feet on astro turf grass! A great experience especially as I was an equally short distance from Hollywood Boulevard on the other side.

Sunset Boulevard (1950), the movie, is one of those films that I suspect more people have heard about than seen. Before last night, that was certainly true for me. Yes, Gloria Swanson steals the show totally, as the crazed Norma Desmond, though the supporting cast is pretty decent too. Given the nature of her career, you could say she was playing herself, but given she was only about 4th option (Pickford, Negri, and Mae West supposedly turned down the part first), maybe thats not the case, but it was the feel I got. Some of the lines have gone into cinema lore, and its well worth seeing, I feel.

Alright, the down side for me. Yes, its on the rooftop, but I wasnt expecting to climb 5 flights of stairs to get there, nowadays! Beyond that, no there really werent any, beyond the old bones finding it hard work to get up from the deck chair afterwards. So much so, given there is a film I’ve seen before, and love, being shown there tomorrow night, I might go back. Lets just say the clue is in the video! 😉

But seriously, if anyone had told me that I’d be sat outside, on a roof, watching a 1950 film, in October, just wearing a dress, well…yes, it was nearly 100 degrees here again yesterday, though its calming down a little in the next few days. Fine, it will still be about 80, but…

Lastly, the video, not the original one, which I’ve used before somewhere, so found this live version